Bacon!

Ooh…bacon. The bad boy of the food world, with its high-fat, high-sodium, preservative-laden attitude. And yet…we can’t stay away, whether it’s a breakfast buffet at Big Boy, an appetizer at Coastal Flats (love their brown sugar-cured bacon/deviled eggs with spiced pecans dish), or the humble BLT.

image via eatmedaily.com

Interesting bits about bacon (haha):

Up until Shakespeare’s time (late 16th/early 17thc), the term bacon – sometimes spelled “bacoun” – was used to mean all pork in general, and originated from several French and German dialect words that meant “back” (of the animal, of course).

Bacon hazard: in 1131, a wandering pig scares the horse that Philip of France was riding. The horse throws him and he dies from his injuries, proving that even the heir of France is not safe from pigs running amok. After that, the government tries to ban city folks from raising pigs, but they like their bacon more than they like their future kings, apparently, and it really wasn’t enforced.

Although bacon was cheap and easy to make – which is why it was a staple peasant food in early England – Englishman John Harris sets up the first bacon-making operation in Wiltshire in the 1770s. Wiltshire, England is still considered the “Bacon Capital” of the UK.

In 1924, the Americans get into the large-scale bacon-making business when Oscar-Mayer packages (and patents) pre-sliced bacon for the American housewife (no more brine tubs in the back yard! Yay!).

A typical American consumes 17.9 pounds of bacon a year. Wow.

Scientists have found that choline (a micronutrient in bacon and other foods) improves fetal brain development.

LOL! Who woulda thunk? I didn’t know all those fun facts about bacon and I’d never heard about those products. Ew! I love bacon, well done. Denny’s Restaurant came out with a bacon topped ice cream sundae. Some people love it. Doesn’t sound good to me!

I had NO idea bacon was so popular and could be used in so many wonderful ways. LOL!! I dare say, I’d actually try chocolate covered bacon. I think the combination of sweet and salty might just be heavenly….or horrible…one or the other!
ROFL – FAB post darlin’!